Beneath a blanket of dust in an attic only illuminated by a small frosted window, lay a small stack of papers. Papers that rip some families apart while also bringing others together. These very papers are one that once changed my family forever. Who would have thought an innocent stack of papers in an attic could unveil decades worth of secrets? We certainly didn’t. ”Kayden, Calie, come here?” My mom shouted from the living room. “Your uncle just called me. He found something of Papas that you won't believe.” Adoption Papers. There’s something terrifying about not knowing where you come from. Typically, when family is brought up people think of roots: strong, grounding, unchangeable. But when those roots don’t stretch as far as we thought, what does that make us? Suddenly, everything changed. A man I thought I knew, became a total mystery. A million thoughts rivalled each other. Who knew? For how long? Why didn’t anyone know? And what did that make me? For days, answers crept farther and farther away from me. Many of them were lost, I found myself combing through possible answers that would never fit the question. The deeper I dug, the more I realized that there’s only one solvable question. Who am I? I realized identity isn’t about uncovering every answer to every question or finding the truth behind every secret. It’s about what you do when the story changes. Yes, the truth was unexpected. But it also gave me perspective. I learned that while the past informs, it doesn’t confine. My Papa’s secret story doesn’t make my life less rooted, it just reminds me that we are all more complex than we seem. I don't need a seamless understanding of my lineage to know who I am. I am not just a result of the love shared in my family, I am my own person. I am defined by the choices I make, the virtues I follow, and the love I surround myself with. Those adoption papers have altered my bloodline, but they didn't destroy the life I’ve lived or the person I’ve become. I no longer cower when faced with the challenge of identity. I face it with purpose and trust that whatever I do, it is me. I’ce learned that identity is not a fixed idea shaped by family history. It’s shaped by how I respond when everything I thought I knew changed. I’ve chosen to respond by claiming my story, even the parts I didn’t write, and continuing to turn the pages. So, who am I? I am someone who dug up a buried truth and rather than hiding in that hole, I grew out of it. I am someone who understands that blood doesn’t always define a family, love does. I am someone who doesn’t search for my identity in my past, but creates it through my future. I am unapologetically me, no one else, and never anyone different.

My engineering major is biomedical engineering. My sophomore year of high school, I found my love for Chemistry. I learned that I thrived at it and I knew I wanted to pursue it in my future. But, I always had a love for creating and engineering as a whole. The process of ideation, creation, trial, error, and reflection was always something I felt comfortable doing. So, I sat back and thought of how I could combine my love of chemistry and creating, I landed on becoming a chemical engineer. Now, I didn’t really know what that entailed at the time, but I have since learned that there are a number of specialties in the world of chemical engineering. I discovered that I could pursue my love of skin health and nourishment in this field, I could create products that could help hundreds and thousands of people. Then, I sat and thought more. In the last 3 years, my love for ceramics and pottery has also sprouted and grown into a vast garden. The more I thought, I realized I could combine almost everything I love. Ceramics is chemistry at its core. The combination of rock, silt, and clay to create different stoneware or porcelain materials. The meticulous mixture of different elements and minerals to create any color of the rainbow. That is all the job of a chemical engineer. Engineering offers a whole new world of possibilities and opportunities where truly anything that can be thought of can be made.

My engineering major varies between chemical, biochemical, and biomedical engineering. My sophomore year of high school, I found my love for Chemistry. I learned that I thrived at it and I knew I wanted to pursue it in my future. But, I always had a love for creating and engineering as a whole. The process of ideation, creation, trial, error, and reflection was always something I felt comfortable doing. So, I sat back and thought of how I could combine my love of chemistry and creating, I landed on becoming a chemical engineer. Now, I didn’t really know what that entailed at the time, but I have since learned that there are a number of specialties in the world of chemical engineering. I discovered that I could pursue my love of skin health and nourishment in this field, I could create products that could help hundreds and thousands of people. Then, I sat and thought more. In the last 3 years, my love for ceramics and pottery has also sprouted and grown into a vast garden. The more I thought, I realized I could combine almost everything I love. Ceramics is chemistry at its core. The combination of rock, silt, and clay to create different stoneware or porcelain materials. The meticulous mixture of different elements and minerals to create any color of the rainbow. That is all the job of a chemical engineer. Engineering offers a whole new world of possibilities and opportunities where truly anything that can be thought of can be made. I strive to be a part of this amazing, innovative world full of likeminded creators that see no limit.